Personal walercrafts such as jet skis have become very popular. In order to transport the personal watercrafts, trailers and transport carriers have been designed to accommodate one or two individual personal watercrafts. I have designed a personal watercraft carrier which carries a single personal watercraft and can be used with other transport carriers to increase the number of personal watercrafts a trailer can carry. Moreover, my personal watercraft carrier can be used alone.
Several devices have been patented which are aimed at watercraft carriers and watercraft trailers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,261, to Godbersen, entitled "PERSONAL WATERCRAFT TRAILER" discloses a trailer having wheels and an axle support frame having a pair of parallel, longitudinally extended frame portions interconnected at their rear ends, and with longitudinally spaced pair of V-shaped bracket units mounted on each frame portion. Each pair of bracket units support a pair of elongated, laterally spaced, parallel pair of bunks for supporting a single personal watercraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,910, to Hall, entitled "VEHICLE MOUNTED SELF-LOADING AND CARRYING APPARATUS" discloses a self-loading and carrying apparatus which includes longitudinal extruded frame members with transverse end members mounted on a pick-up truck.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,545, to Gettman, entitled "PERSONAL WATERCRAFT CRADLE AND METHOD OF USE" discloses a lightweight cradle system for use in launching, beaching, transporting and storing a personal watercraft. The cradle system has hollow side pipes oriented in, typically, a generally "V" shaped configuration, which hollow side pipes converge toward a typically rounded interconnection point. A plurality of rollers are provided and are coupled between the hollow side pipes. The cradle system further comprises side supports with pads coupled to the hollow side pipes to cradle the personal watercraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,893, to Hart, Jr., entitled "COLLAPSIBLE SUPPORT AND TRANSPORT STAND FOR PERSONAL WATERCRAFT" discloses a collapsible support and transport stand for supporting a personal watercraft. The stand includes a cradle and a plurality of telescoping legs which extend to a pair of skids having a plurality of spring biased retractable wheels. The telescoping legs are maintained in their support position transverse to the cradle by telescoping cross members. The cross members are removably to allow the legs to pivot to a stowed position underneath the cradle. When the leg members are pivoted to collapse the support and transport stand, the leg members of one side overlap the legs of the other side. Furthermore, when the leg members are pivoted, the personal watercraft should be removed so that the stand can be collapsed. Therefore, the stand of Hart, Jr. is not capable of pivoting the legs lift or lower the cradle with the personal watercraft supported in the cradle, as does the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,846, to Taylor, entitled "JET SKI TRANSPORTER CARRIAGE AND RELATED METHODS" discloses a transporter carriage having rails forming part of a framework which are shaped to compatibly receive a jet ski, and releasably interchangeable support systems which provide carriage support and mobility.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,830, to Woodburn, entitled "MOTOR VEHICLE AND BOAT TAILER" discloses a trailer which supports a car and a frame structure which allows a boat to be supported above the car.
While each of the above personal watercraft carriers and trailers function as desired, none of them have a personal watercraft carrier having a cradle, for supporting therein a personal watercraft, coupled to a support frame wherein the support frame has two vertical leg support members which are pivotally coupled to advance from an essentially horizontal position to an essentially vertical upright position or from an essentially vertical upright position to an essentially horizontal position; wherein when the vertical leg support members are advance to the essentially horizontal position, the cradle is in close proximity to the ground or other horizontal surface which enables the user to easily mount the personal watercraft in the cradle; and wherein the pivotal translation of the vertical leg support members from the horizontal position to the vertical upright position lifts the cradle having placed therein the personal watercraft.
As will be seen more fully below, the present invention is substantially different in structure, methodology and approach from that of the prior personal watercraft carriers.